Astronomers have been studying the sun for over 400 years, but Galileo was one of the first to document dark spots in the star. These observations challenged the general idea that the sun had the perfect spherical shape. Not only these discoveries, but many others, made Galileo one of the most revolutionary astronomers in history. Unfortunately, he did not live long enough to see what the European Space Agency\u2019s Solar Orbiter found out during a routine fly-by over a nearby planet.<\/p>\n
The sun is special: There\u2019s an instrument specifically designed to study it<\/p>\n
Since Galileo, the technology has advanced enough for astronomers to send probes to space, rovers to Mars, and track the sun\u2019s 11-year cycle and study phenomena such as solar flares \u2013 something that could put an end to the world as we know it with just a small demonstration of its power. Observing the phenomena has not been easy due to the limited angles we are able to see from Earth, or by nearby spacecraft.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, this could soon be a thing of the past with the newest way to collect data from the sun that the European Space Agency\u2019s Solar Orbiter gathered while conducting a flyby. By accident, it revealed a part of our star that was previously inaccessible, and the new findings could change our understanding of its magnetic field, like Galileo did in the past.<\/p>\n
New insights in the sun\u2019s behavior: Galileo saw it first<\/p>\n
For the first time since telescopes were invented and Galileo was looking to the sky, scientists can actually see the Sun\u2019s poles, uncovering magnetic and structural details that were not expected. The Solar Orbiter made it possible by using a gravity assist during its February flyby of Venus, which tilted its orbit 17 degrees away from the Sun\u2019s equator.<\/p>\n
The images revealed the intensity of the Sun\u2019s South Pole, really \u2013 something astronomers had no idea. Instruments like PHI, which maps magnetic fields, and EUI and SPICE, which observe the upper atmosphere and corona, collected data showing how magnetic activity sends charged particles streaming into space \u2013 similar to the process that brings ghost particles to Earth.<\/a><\/p>\n Careful when study the star: Its magnetic field is tricky<\/p>\n Unlike Earth\u2019s mostly steady magnetic field, the Sun\u2019s magnetic zones are always in motion. Smaller, active regions around sunspots and the poles help shape the star\u2019s overall magnetic field. Most of the time in its 11-year cycle, this field acts like a giant bar magnet. But near the solar maximum \u2013 the Sun\u2019s most active phase \u2013 the field flips, swapping north and south poles.<\/p>\n With Solar Orbiter\u2019s unique perspective, scientists are seeing this flip happen for the first time \u2013 another huge step beyond the early observations Galileo made back in the 1600s. The spacecraft has also captured fresh images showing how different chemical elements move through the Sun\u2019s layers. Using SPICE, which picks up specific frequencies of light called spectral lines, it tracks elements like hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, neon, and magnesium as they shift and flow at various temperatures.<\/p>\n Solar Orbiter immune to sun\u2019s power: It traces from distant<\/p>\n For the first time, the SPICE team was able to track these spectral lines to measure how fast chunks of solar material are moving. These measurements show how particles get launched from the Sun as solar wind. Understanding these winds and eruptions better will help scientists predict how sudden bursts could impact life on Earth. A strong solar burst could disrupt satellites, throwing daily life into chaos. With over 10,000 satellites in orbit, even a small flare could have major consequences, but there\u2019s one new technology that could use the power of the sun to help people to generate energy \u201cdirectly from the source\u201d.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Astronomers have been studying the sun for over 400 years, but Galileo was one of the first to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,128,285],"class_list":{"0":"post-135967","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}